"The World as Will and Representation" by Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) is the brightest and most accessible philosophical treatise of the 19th century, which influenced the development of art and the formation of many new disciplines, from psychoanalysis to the study of virtual reality. Schopenhauer argues that if causality dominates in our world, then the only freedom is freedom of imaginative thinking. Stinging pessimism is combined in Schopenhauer's writings with poetic observation and a new understanding of human dignity. This publication is supplemented by an introductory article by Professor of the Russian State Humanitarian University and VlSU Alexander Markov.